“I thought we played extremely hard. We couldn’t’ come up with a shot or two that could get us over the hump, but the effort was amazing. I appreciate the guys playing that hard and what we tried to get done. We just fell short. Chris Paul made a couple of really big plays for them and did a really good job. Unfortunately for us, we just couldn’t get over the hump.”

(On making playoffs)
“It doesn’t matter what Memphis or anybody else does. What we have to do is try to win games. For us to lose it hurts us; it doesn’t matter what those teams are doing. We just have to try to continue to plug away. We’re not going to quit, we’ll keep playing hard, we’ll keep competing and we will do the best we can.”

(On Gortat’s broken nose)

“If there was any way he could have come back and played, I have no doubt he would have. It was a really bad break. It was just unfortunate because I thought he was playing great; he was doing a really good job for us. It’s one of those things, it happens; it’s not the end of the world. We’re going to keep playing. Our goal is still to make playoffs. It might be a long shot, but it doesn’t matter, we will keep competing.”

“It was a big game. We needed to come out and play hard but the ball didn’t bounce our way. The effort that we gave is the effort that we have to give for the rest of the season minus some small mistakes.”

(On loosing Gortat)
“It was big. That’s our man in the middle; he shuts it down. He gets blocks, rebounds, and loose balls. It was tough loosing him but guys have to step up and we have to fight through it.”

“It’s a stab close to the heart. Its one of those that is not over but it is close. Especially at home against a team that we are trying to chase. We played hard. We have all the excuses in the world but we played our best basketball and tried to win but we couldn’t knock down a couple of shots and couldn’t get a couple key shots.

“I thought we got a little fatigued. I thought they did a good job with the mismatches, a couple times Chris Paul had an isolation play against me at the top of the key or the point guards at the elbow. I thought he took over the game. Losing Gortat was big from a rebounding and pick and role standpoint. Even with that we still had a couple good shots at the end. We had our chances.”

“You just can’t say enough about guys pulling together in adversity. I’d love to tell you it was about tricky plays and we had some schemes go well for us tonight. Nash, of course, didn’t shoot the ball well tonight but I thought Carl (Landry) showed great toughness; he got off to a bad start and finished the game well. Jarrett Jack and Willie Green come off the bench and give us great energy and scoring, and Chris (Paul) was phenomenal tonight, especially in the second half versus the zone, and again Emeka (Okafor) just makes plays down the stretch. Willie (Green) shoots the shot short, he gets a rebound finishes the play. That’s what it’s going to take. Guys are going to have to step up and make plays.”

“I think a lot of guys stepped up. When you lose someone like D. West you can’t just throw one person in there; it has to be by committee. I think we showed a lot of resilience, a lot of fight to win a game like this on the road.”

(On filling in for David West)
“I think I was a little tentative because of the situation that the team is in. I’m human so I was thinking about it a little bit, but I just wanted to go out there and play the best I could and help the team out as much as I could. The first half, I think I was just thinking a little too much; rushing some shots, missing some things I usually make, miss some shots I usually make. At halftime, right before halftime, coach just told me to just play; just be yourself. Don’t try to be David West, don’t try to be something that you’re not, don’t try to put all the weight on your shoulders. There’s no I in team; it has to be a collective effort.”